Quotes by John Jakes

“The pain comes from knowing that we have never been safe, and therefore will never be safe again. It comes from knowing we can never be so ignorant again. It comes from knowing we can never be children again. Losing innocence. Remembering heaven. That was the essence of hell.”

“The first treasure California began to surrender after the Gold Rush as the oldest: her land.”

“The house burned an hour before midnight on the last day of April. The wild, distant ringing of the fire bells woke George Hazard. He stumbled through the dark hallway, then upstairs to the mansion tower, and stepped outside into the narrow balcony.”

“No writer should minimize the factor that affects everyone, but is beyond control: luck.”

The best that could be left behind by any man: children who had been brought up to behave responsibly and to believe in something beyond their own self gratification. (The Americans

Human beings may be inconsistent, but human nature is true to itself

He could never be anything more than what he was: the inheritor of weakness and unbridled emotion, a creature possessed by the past, and carrying its curse forever into the future--

I have always had a special affinity for libraries and librarians, for the most obvious reasons. I love books. (One of my first Jobs was shelving books at a branch of the Chicago Public Library.) Libraries are a pillar of any society. I believe our lack of attention to funding and caring for them properly in the United States has a direct bearing on problems of literacy, productivity, and our inability to compete in todays world. Libraries are everymans free university.

—and I say you still havent answered my question, Father Bleu.Havent I, dear lady? I thought I stated that death is merely the beginning

Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.

No writer should minimize the factor that affects everyone but is beyond control: luck.